UF receives record $702 million in research funding in 2014

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida received a record $702 million in research awards last year, surpassing by $24 million the previous record of $678 million set in 2010.

“This new record is particularly remarkable because our previous record was set in 2009-10 during President Obama’s economic stimulus, when federal investment in research soared,” UF President Bernie Machen said. “That our faculty beat the old record this year -- a year with no such surge in research funding -- really testifies to their talent and commitment as scientists and scholars.”

In fiscal year 2014, which ended June 30, state funding to UF was up $10 million, or 29 percent, to $44.8 million. Federal awards increased $48.7 million, or nearly 12 percent, to $465.3 million.

The new total marks a 42 percent increase in UF research awards since 2004-05.

“The University of Florida is committed to being one of the very best public research universities in the country, and surpassing $700 million is an important milestone in that effort,” said David Norton, UF’s vice president for research. “It is a testament to our faculty that the 6,014 awards received this year were distributed among nearly 1,900 faculty and came from a thousand different sponsors.”

UF had more than 50 grants of at least $1 million to researchers in various sectors of the campus.

Major UF Health grants included $6.7 million from the National Institutes of Health to the Institute for Therapeutic Innovation to study antibiotic resistance and $2 million from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

IFAS awards included $2.9 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the effects of climate change on pine trees and $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research on tomato quality and taste.

Major College of Engineering awards included $1.2 million from the Air Force to the Mathematical Modeling and Optimization Institute. CLAS awards included $2.2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for physics research at the Large Hadron Collider.

Other major awards included $2.6 million from NSF to the Florida Museum of Natural History for the iDigBio project to digitize natural history museum collections and $1 million from the Florida Department of State for renovations to Government House in St. Augustine.

The research enterprise is a key driver of UF’s technology transfer efforts, Norton said, noting that last year the Office of Technology Licensing issued a record-setting 87 licenses and options.

“You never know where the next big idea is going to come from,” Norton said. “Many capabilities we take for granted today grew out of university research, so we encourage our faculty to consider the potential applications of their research.”